INDIAN  NOTES 
!  AND  MONOGRAPHS 


A  SERIES  OF  PUBLICA- 
TIONS RELATING  TO  THE 
AMERICAN  ABORIGINES 


A  NATIVE  COPPER  CELT 
FROM  ONTARIO 

BY 

ALANSON  SKINNER 


NEW  YORK 

MUSEUM  OF  THE  AMERICAN  INDIAN 

HEYE  FOUNDATION 

1920 


LIBRARY 

UNIVERSITY  Of 
CALIFORNIA 

SAfJ  DIEGO       I 

— Publications  of  the  Museum  of  the 
American  Indian,  Heye  Foundation 

THE   GEORGE  G.  HEYE  EXPEDITION 
CONTRIBUTIONS  TO  SOUTH  AMER- 
ICAN ARCHAEOLOGY 

Vol.1 

The  Antiquities  of  Manabi,  Ecuador:  A  Pre- 
liminary Report.  By  Marshall  H.  Saville. 
1907.  $25.00. 

Vol.2 

The  Antiquities  of  Manabi,  Ecuador:  Final 
Report.  By  Marshall  H.  Saville.  1910. 
$25.00. 

CONTRIBUTIONS  FROM  THE  MUSEUM 

OF  THE  AMERICAN  INDIAN, 

HEYE  FOUNDATION 

Vol.  1 

No.  1:  Lucayan  Artifacts  from  the  Bahamas. 
By  Theodoor  de  Booy.  Reprinted  from  Amer. 
Anthropol.,  Vol.  15,  1913,  No.  1.  SOc. 

No.  2:  Precolumbian  Decoration  of  the  Teeth 
in  Ecuador,  with  some  Account  of  the  Oc- 
currence of  the  Custom  in  other  parts  of 
North  and  South  America.  By  Marshall  H. 
Saville.  Reprinted  from  Amer.  Anthropol., 
Vol.  15,  1913,  No.  3.  SOc. 

No.  3:  Certain  Kitchen-middens  in  Jamaica. 
By  Theodoor  de  Booy.  Reprinted  from 
Amer.  Anthropol.,  Vol.  15,  1913,  No.  3.  (Re- 
printed, 1919.)  SOc. 

No.  4:  Porto  Rican  Elbow-stones  in  the  Heye 
Museum,  with  discussion  of  similar  objects 
elsewhere.  By  J.  Walter  Fewkes.  Reprinted 
from  Amer  Anthropol.,  Vol.  15,  1913,  No.  3. 
SOc. 


INDIAN  NOTES 
AND  MONOGRAPHS 


A  SERIES  OF  PUBLICA- 
TION'S RELATING  TO  THE 
AMERICAN  ABORIGINES 


A  NATIVE  COPPER  CELT 
FROM  ONTARIO 

BY 

ALAXSON  SKINNER 


NEW  YORK 

Ml  M.I'M  OF  THE  AMERICAN   INDIAN 

HEYE  FOUNDATION 

1920 


UNIVERSITY 

OF  CALIFOKNIA.  SAH 
'OUA.  r.A1      "Nia 


THIS  series  of  INDIAN  NOTES  AND  MONO- 
GRAPHS is  devoted  primarily  to  the  publica- 
tion of  the  results  of  studies  by  members  of 
the  staff  of  the  Museum  of  the  American 
Indian,  Heye  Foundation,  and  is  uniform 
with  HISPANIC  NOTES  AND  MONOGRAPHS, 
published  by  the  Hispanic  Society  of 
America,  with  which  organization  this 
Museum  is  in  cordial  cooperation. 


A  NATIVE  COPPER  CELT 
FROM  ONTARIO 


BY 

ALANSON  SKINNER 


SKINNER— COPPER  CELT 


NATIVE  COPPER  CELT  FROM  ONTARIO 


A  NATIVE  COPPER  CELT 
FROM  ONTARIO 

BY  ALANSON  SKINNER 

HE  specimen  here  illustrated  is  an 
extremely  long,  thin  celt,  measur- 
ing 15  in.  inlength,  by  3f  in.  at  the 
bit  and  2  in.  at  the  poll,  and  is  of 
a  type  more  often  encountered  in  the  area 
from  Tennessee  southward  to  the  Gulf  of 
Mexico.  It  is  made  of  native  copper, 
shaped  by  hammering,  the  lamination  still 
being  visible  beneath  the  green  corrosion. 

The  celt,  with  one  other,  similar  except 
that  its  edges  flare  at  the  bit,  was  found 
in  1908  in  an  immense  Attiwandaron  or 
Neutral  Indian  cemetery  at  Saint  Davids, 
Ontario,  by  contractors  engaged  in  strip- 
ping off  surface  sand  to  obtain  a  deposit  of 
commercially  valuable  gravel  beneath. 
Aside  from  the  fact  that  this  implement 


INDIAN    NOTES 


COPPER  CELT 


is  of  a  type  that  could  not  fail  to  attract 
attention  from  any  locality,  its  occurrence 
so  far  from  the  region  where  the  form  nor- 
mally occurs  is  of  unusual  interest.  While 
it  is  possible  that  the  Attiwandaron  were 
acquainted  with  the  sources  of  native  cop- 
per on  Lake  Superior,  through  their  neigh- 
bors, the  Huron  and  Tobacco  Nations,  the 
type  and  technique  of  this  celt  eliminate 
this  direction  as  its  source  of  origin.  That 
the  specimen  came  from  the  lower  Missis- 
sippi or  near  the  Gulf  of  Mexico  is  rendered 
more  probable  by  the  fact  that  discoidal 
beads,  tubes,  cups,  gorgets,  and  even  whole 
shells  of  Strombus  gigas,  a  conch  found  in 
Southern  waters,  were  not  uncommon  at 
Saint  Davids,  and  also  at  other  Attiwan- 
daron sites  in  the  township  of  Beverly  and 
at  Lake  Medad,  near  Waterdown,  Ontario. 
No  similar  celt  from  New  York  is  known 
to  exist  in  any  museum,  but  the  same  type 
has  been  found  in  various  southern  locali- 
ties. For  references  to  and  illustrations  of 
these,  see  Clarence  B.  Moore,  Certain  Abo- 
riginal Remains  on  Black  Warrior  River, 
figs.  27,  28,  33,  Philadelphia,  1905. 


INDIAN   NOTES 


No.  5:  Note  on  the  Archaeology  of  Chiriqui. 
By  George  Grant  MacCurdy.  Reprinted 
from  Amer.  Anlkropol.,  Vol.  15,  1913.  No.  4. 
50c. 

No.  6:  Petroglyphs  of  Saint  Vincent,  British 
West  Indies.  By  Thomas  Huckerby.  Re- 
printed from  Amer.  Anthropol.,  Vol.  16,  1914. 
No.  2.  50c. 

No.  7:  Prehistoric  Objects  from  a  Shell-heap 
at  Erin  Bay,  Trinidad.  By  J.  Walter  Fewkes. 
Reprinted  from  Amer.  Anthropol.,  Vol.  16, 
1914,  No.  2.  50c. 

No.  8:  Relations  of  Aboriginal  Culture  and  En- 
vironment in  the  Lesser  Antilles.  By  J. 
Walter  Fewkes.  Reprinted  from  Bull.  Amer. 
Geogr.  Soc.,  Vol.  46,  1914,  No.  9,  59c. 

No.  9:  Pottery  from  Certain  Caves  in  Eastern 
Santo  Domingo,  West  Indies.    By  Theodoor 
de  Booy.    Reprinted  from  Amer.  Anthropol.. 
Vol.  17, 1915,  No.  1.    50c. 
Vol.2 

No.  1 :  Exploration  of  a  Munsee  Cemetery  near 
Montague,  New  Jersey.  By  George  G.  Heye 
and  George  H.  Pepper.  1915.  $1.00. 

No.  2:  Engraved  Celts  from  the  Antilles.  By 
J.  Walter  Fewkes.  1915.  50c. 

No.  3:  Certain  West  Indian  Superstitions  Per- 
taining to  Celts.  By  Theodoor  de  Booy. 
Reprinted  from  Journ.  Amer.  Folk-Lore,  Vol. 
28,  No.  107,  1915.  50c. 

No.  4:  The  Nanticoke  Community  of  Dela- 
ware. By  Frank  G.  Speck.  1915.  $1.00. 

No.  5:  Notes  on  the  Archeology  of  Margarita 
Island,  Venezuela.  By  Theodoor  de  Booy. 
1916.  50c. 

No.  6:  Monolithic  _Axes  and  their  Distribution 
in  Ancient  America.  By  M arshall  H.  Saville. 
1916.  50c. 


Vol.  3 

Physical  Anthropology  of  the  Lenape  or  Dela- 
wares,  and  of  the  Eastern  Indians  in  Gen- 
eral. By  Ales  Hrdlicka.  (Bur.  of  Amer. 
Ethnol.,  Bull.  62,  1916,  with  added  title-page 
and  cover.)  $1.00. 

Vol.4 

No.  1 :  The  Technique  of  Porcupine-Quill  Dec- 
oration among  the  North  American  Indians. 
By  William  C.  Orchard.  1916.  $1.00. 

J^o.  2:  Certain  Archeological  Investigations 
in  Trinidad,  British  West  Indies.  By  Theo- 
door  de  Booy.  Reprinted  from  Amer.  An- 
thropol.,  Vol.  19,  1917,  No.  4.  50c. 

No.  3:  The  Nacoochee  Mound  in  Georgia.  By 
George  G.  Heye,  F.  W.  Hodge,  and  George 
H.  Pepper.  1918.  $1.50. 

Vol.  5 

No.  1:  A  Letter  of  Pedro  de  Alvarado  Relating 
to  his  Expedition  to  Ecuador  [1534].  By 
Marshall  H.  Saville.  1917.  50c. 

No.  2:  The  Diegueno  Ceremony  of  the  Death- 
Images.  ByE.  H.Davis.  1919.  50c. 

No.  3:  Certain  Mounds  in  Haywood  County, 
North  Carolina.  By  George  G.  Heye.  Re- 
printed from  Holmes  Anniversary  Volume, 
1916.  1919.  50c. 

No.  4:  Exploration  of  Aboriginal  Sites  at 
Throgs  Neck  and  Clasons  Point,  New  York 
City.  By  Alanson  Skinner.  1919.  $1.00. 

Address  : 
MUSEUM  OF  THE  AMERICAN  INDIAN,  HEYE 

FOUNDATION, 

BROADWAY  AT  155TH  ST., 
NEW  YORK  CITY 


